Why was Man created?

Perhaps you have looked at the wonders of creation, the excellencies of the universe, the vast array of different materials filled with all kinds of beauty; or perhaps your reflection is bent towards the ugliness of creation, the corruption that fills the universe which manifest itself in chaos and destruction and you are forced to ask yourself the question, ‘why was Man created and what is Man’s purpose?’ Is there a universal purpose for the existence of man and if there is how are we to know it? Can Darwinian evolution give us a satisfactory answer, or do we look to the different philosophies of man and adhere to its conclusions? Each man may look under which ever rock he feels persuaded to search but I will search for the answer in a book called the bible in which the Creator Himself as given us the reason for why He created Man.

The Bible in its opening verse declares that ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth’, Gen 1:1. The subsequent verses details how God created all that we see and then finally of how He created Man (male and female) in His own image. But did God create Man because He was lonely? Was God bored and tired, was He unhappy because He had no one to love but himself? Was God like a child who had no one to play with in His park and then decided that He would fill it with man in order to defeat His loneliness and boredom? This perhaps may be true for a singular god with one person in his being but it is not so with the God of the Bible. The God of the bible is a Trinitarian God* (Father, Son and Spirit) not singular but Trinitarian. Jesus explains this concept when He says to His Father in John 17:5&24, ‘And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began…because you have loved me before the creation of the world’. Jesus in his words tells us perfectly what God was doing before the creation of the world and that was that the Father was loving the Son. This tells us that God was not a bored deity who created man to cure his loneliness but rather God was loving His Son with delightful pleasure and that God was eternally satisfied and had no deficiency that He should create man out of necessity. So, if Man was not created because God was lonely or that God needed man, then  why did God create man?

The bible sheds direct light on this question and the answer it gives showers man with tremendous privilege and purpose. Psalm 115:3 says ‘Our God is in the heavens; he does whatever He pleases’. Psalm 86:9, ‘All the nations you have made will come and worship before you O Lord; they will bring glory to your name’. Isaiah 60:21 ‘Your people shall all be righteous; they shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the works of my hand, that I might be glorified’. In Isaiah 43:7 God speaks of His sons and daughters from the ends of the earth as those ‘whom I created for my glory’. It is shown that the reason God created Man was to the praise of His glory. He created man not because he was bored or lonely but that man may reflect His glory in the world. In order for man to be able to reflect God’s glory, it is written that God created man in His own image. Out of all of God’s creation it is only said of man to be made in the image of their creator. Because this is so, it means that man is like God and represents God in a unique way which other created beings could never reflect. Man was made to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever and that is why it is also written that we are to ‘do all things to God’s glory’.

But we look at the world and it may look to us a sad picture and that is because Man has fallen short of its purpose which is to reflect the glory of God, that is why Paul writes in Romans 3:23 that ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God’. We have all failed to reflect the glory of God and the universe looks to us a bleak purpose, a meaningless existence and a loveless place. This is because Man has departed from its Image and we have become marred like a marred clay. But there is hope, there is hope to return to our true image and to our true likeliness and to once again reflect the image of God throughout the earth.  This hope is in the good news of Jesus Christ, that God so loved the world that Jesus Christ His Son came into the world in which he created to come and die for us on the cross, so that those who believe and trust him will be made afresh, made new in the attitudes of their minds and  will be created again to be like God in true righteousness and Holiness, Ephesians 4:24. This is why it is also written of those who believe that ‘we, who were the first to put our hope in Jesus Christ, might be to the praise of God’s glory’, Eph 1:12.

God does what ever He pleases and before creation began the Trinitarian God was eternally satisfied and needed nothing, not even man; but in Love, in perfect joy God created man in His own image so that man may reflect His glory and live to worship God and enjoy God forever. This is why David said in Psalm 16:11 ‘In your presence there is fullness of joy, in your right hand are pleasures forever more’. Jesus declares in John 10:10 that, ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly’. Live according to your purpose and you will witness how your life will be filled with joy and praise because that is what you were created for. God is a forgiven creator and He loves his image bearers and no matter what you may have done or failed to do, God welcomes you back with open arms because of the death of Jesus who died for you and was raised from the dead so that you may be accepted.

*For a more in depth explanation on the trinity click here

K.Oni